More rebasings

Sleeping, database management, travelling on public transport - all these things are made more unpleasant with this heat (honest, Great Western Railways, where are your trains with functioning air conditioning?). To this list I add painting. No matter how wet my palette, the paint dries on the brush and the miniature before I can spread it across. I have spent half my painting time scraping off lumpy layers of paint with my fingernail over and over again.

Progress is therefore even slower than usual on the painting front.

So, back to rebasing the back catalogue of zombie hunters with a view to utilising them in some modern pulp games:

This troublesome witch...

First of the two muggle-dressed witches painted up.

I struggled to enjoy painting this one, and I'm not altogether sure why. It's not the sculpting style, because I've enjoyed painting Offensive Miniatures products before and she's not dissimilar to the male rioters. There were tricky areas to get a brush into - particularly the neck - but I found myself losing momentum before I reached those stages. I liked working on the miniature with green stuff, and she should tick all my 'fun to paint' boxes - not overly detailed, a limited palette of colours, expressive face...

I dunno.

I'm happy with how the hands turned out, anyway - don't think they stand out too much from the rest of her.

I'm struggling with painting her companion too, so it may be a while before I start gaming regularly in Potter Alley!

Aside from them, I'm hurrying through some 'plot points' for the next Pulp Alley game - hopefully I should get another game in before the week is out.

"Oh, she got a letter just like that and disappeared off to that - that school - and came home every holiday with her pockets full of frog spawn, turning teacups into rats."

Well, the first Pulp Alley game with the Mrs went well, pitting the wiles of Cedric Wyrtgeorn and chums against a band of academic adventurers, and to all intents and purposes she (and I) enjoyed the occasion.

The Artemis Fowl / Indiana Jones-esque theme didn't really grab her, though, and I've been giving some thought as to what I could add to my small but growing collection of miniatures which might spark her imagination into full gear.

Of course, my mind wandered, so inspiration came from the lady herself: she quite likes Harry Potter - do I have anything along those lines?

I did not, and try as I might, I could not find much throughout the web on 28mm Hogwarting, other than an upcoming game from Knight Models, and they look to like they're going to be bigger and more expensive miniatures, and far too detailed for my liking. I also am not inclined to just use film characters (aside from the fact that I did not enjoy the films, so very much preferring the books) - I prefer to game within a world, rather than follow a set script with a pre-written cast, so clearly I will have to produce my own miniatures.

I like converting figures so there is no issue on that score; I have a fair few models which will suit as civilian wizards and witches (muggle-clothed to start with) since pretty much any lightly armed or unarmed appearance will do. The main difficulty arises in sourcing wand-holding hands; I just couldn't find anything more suitable than spears cut short, and those didn't feel right.

So I am having to make my own.

My experience with Green Stuff until now has been largely filling gaps and wild hair styles, with the odd reworking of a sleeve here and there - nothing so intricate as hands and fingers, so this is a learning curve.

So, attempt #1:

I figured the best way to reduce the risk of the wand breaking off at some point in the future was to extend the paper clip I was using for her arm and model the hand around the bend.

The fingers weren't actually all that hard - I just had to remind myself to be patient and let the first parts dry before attempting the next.

As you can see, I rather oversized her wand hand, so I've enlarged her left fist so as to hopefully minimise the discrepancy. Hopefully the difference (and indeed the size of the hands relative to the rest of her) will be a bite less noticeable under a paint job.

Attempt #2:

The hand is at least approaching the right scale, though looking at it now I feel the forefinger is a tad too long. The wand is also a bit longer than the other, but seeing as "each wand is unique", I reckon I am allowed to get away with not being too fussy on that front.

Now to get some paint on them, and work on some male wand wavers. These two women came from Offensive Miniatures and only needed to have their hands snipped off and replaced - unfortunately the male rioters all generally have their faces covered or hold their arms in unsuitable positions. I'll have to look elsewhere, and probably have to reconstruct entire arms. Here goes nothing...

A couple more modern pulped up action heroes and heroines to fill an assortment of roles in Pulp Alley games. More detail to come soon as I work out another league or two.

The Beginnings of a Pulp Adventure

I have been keen to try Pulp Alley – a wonderfully flexible and unique ruleset – for a long time. I have bought and read all the rulebooks, but up until now have not had the miniatures to have a proper game (even with the rules’ very low minimum requirement).

Until I can steer the wonderful Mrs Doodler towards tabletop gaming as a hobby, I will be playing on my lonesome. Thankfully, Pulp Alley can accommodate this with its special Solo Deck, so all I need to do is build a reasonable collection of miniatures for adventuring.

While I have no traditional 1930s pulp figures, I do have a good number of modern armed and unarmed civilians from a purchasing frenzy for a yet-to-be-completed(-or-even-seriously-tackled) zombie apocalypse collection, so I do have the resources to put together some modern pulp miniatures – more in the vibe of Indiana Jones and James Bond.

Here are the first offerings: